It Was Only a Game
by Chikemuri
Summary: Cat's just a girl who likes to play Crono Trigger. But one time, during one of her all night gaming sessions, her game screws up and she gets sucked in. NOW what is she gonna do? And how will she ever get home?
1. Cat Goes Bye Bye

Chi: Hey, look all! It's my first real fic that I'm posting! ^_^

Matt: Yeah, it's about time...

Chi: *WHAP*

Matt: X_X itai......

Chi: ^_^ Well, read and review! Oh, I almost forgot! The girl starring in this is one of my friends, Chavi West-Wind! Her nickname's Cat, so that's her name in this story. Just thought you might wanna know ^^

            It was night, about midnight to be exact. In the darkness of the room, a young girl lounged in front of a television with a controller in her hands. The television flashed and blinked as pictures moved on it. Finally, with a loud crackling noise and a flash of light, the girl suddenly moved. "Yes!" she cried, pumping one hand up in the air. "Score one for Cat!" She grinned at the defeated boss on the screen, then yawned and wiped her eyes. "Let's see...I've beaten him..." She rolled her chair over to a computer and typed something on the Word document on the screen. "Fifteen times!" she cried in triumph. "Who's the bomb? Who rocks at Crono Trig--"

            "Cat!"

            The girl winced and thought, 'Um...oops...' She turned her chair to look into her mother's scolding eyes. "Ummm....Mom...what are you doing up so late?"

            "You should be asleep!" the woman reprimanded her. "Not up playing games and making all that racket!"

            Cat's shoulders drooped. 'So much for video games all night...' she thought, rolling back over to her game. "Can I at least save?" she added out loud.

            Her mother sighed. "Five minutes. Then you are to be in bed and asleep, do you hear me?"

            "Yeah, yeah," Cat grabbed her controller and directed her people to go one way. Her mom watched her for a moment, and then went back upstairs to go to sleep, like normal people do at night.

            Cat grumbled, irritated at her mother. "She'll never understand why I love video games. Especially Crono Trigger. Or anime. Stupid parents. I wish I could throw both of them out the window." She located the nearest save point and saved her game. Then she reached for the power button and clicked her SNES off. Then she reached for the power button for the T.V. and stopped. "What the hell?" she said, noticing that the T.V. was showing the opening scene for Crono Trigger, where Crono's mother woke him up and he got up to go to the festival. "Nande kuso?" she said, pushing the television's power button over and over and switching the SNES on and off. "Oh... shit, don't tell me I broke it!" She rushed around to the back of the set and tried to pull the plug. "Ummm...." She sat down cross-legged on the floor. "This isn't good..."

            As she stared at her hands, trying to figure out what to do, she failed to notice that she was getting smaller and that the floor had fallen away from under her. Then she looked up finally and realized she was now as tall as Crono was on the television. With a scream, Cat covered her eyes desperately as she felt herself being dragged into the screen.

            Hearing her daughter's scream, the woman rushed back into the room, only to find a static-covered television and a SNES controller. Her daughter was no where to be found.

Chi: Okay, short but hopefully sweet. I hope I described it well enough!

Chavi: I WOULDN'T SCREAM!!!

Chi: sure you would! ^^

Chavi: *grumbles ambiguously*

Chi: Anyways, she's in it only because she's the most interesting person I can think of, and I don't want to use myself. So... *shrugs* I use her. If you don't mind, please review! And I'll update soon, promise!


	2. Cat and Crono Meet Up

Chi: Hello!

Matt: no, she hasn't given this up yet...

Chi: *WHAP!*

Matt: Itai... X_X

Chi: ^_^V Read and review!

Crono sighed, getting out of bed. After doing a few stretches, he walked over to the stairs, prepared to go downstairs and get ready for the Millennial Fair. Suddenly, behind him he heard a loud thumping noise being him and a female voice saying, "Itai...." He whirled around, snatching his sword sheath off of a dresser. Drawing his sword, he prepared to face any danger.

The girl who had just hit the floor looked up at him with wide eyes. "Nande kuso...?" she whispered.

"What?" Crono asked then shook his head. "Never mind, I don't think that's important. Who are you? What do you want? Where did you come from?"

She flipped her dark ponytail back over her shoulder and glared at him. "Aren't you curious?" Then she paused, staring openly at him.

Crono lowered his sword, staring back. "What?"

The girl blinked rapidly, rubbed her eyes, and said, "Crono?"

After jumping almost three feet in the air, Crono demanded, "How do you know my name? Who are you anyways? Where did you come from?"

"You're repeating yourself," the girl informed him. "I thought you were a lot quieter."

Crono blinked, and she sighed loudly. "Never mind. I'm Cat. I know your name because..." she tried to think of how to word it without making him freak out. "...I know everything!" Oh, yeah, that really was going to make him not freak out...

Raising his sword again, Crono glared threateningly. "Stop messing with my head. Where did you come from?"

"I'm not sure. My house. I just suddenly showed up here," she admitted.

"Thought you knew everything..."

Cat cocked her head at him curiously. "I thought you talked a lot less than this!"

"And I thought you knew everything."

"Oh shut up, smart aleck!"

"Crono! Wake up, sleepy head! Do you want to sleep through the fair?"

Crono glanced over his shoulder at the stairs, looked back at Cat, and finally shouted at his mother, "I'm awake! I'll be down in a minute!"

"Good!"

Then he looked back at the girl who was currently looking at the view outside his window. "Well, what do you know, it really is pretty..."

"What in the world am I supposed to do with you?" Crono wondered aloud, making Cat jump and hit her head on the window frame.

"Itai..." Cat turned back to the redheaded boy. "How should I know? I don't even know how I got here!"

"I thought you knew—"

"I get the point! So I don't know everything, so sue me!"

Crono decided to ignore that comment and instead said, "Okay...so now I have a girl who just showed up out of nowhere in my bedroom and my mom is about to yell at me again."

"Crono!"

"I'm awake! I told you, I'll be down in a minute!" Then he looked at Cat, rolling his eyes. "I know her too well..."

"For heaven's sakes, what's taking so long?" Footsteps were heard on the stairs and before Crono could tell his new 'guest' to hide, his mother had come into the room. She stopped, staring at Cat. "Crono..." she said threateningly. "You'd better have a good excuse for this..."

"Ma'am, I swear this, I just showed up here! Honestly I did!" Cat shook her head vigorously. "I'm not his girlfriend, that's the blonde's job!"

"Blonde...?"

"What blonde?" Crono demanded.

Cat thought for a second, then said, "Oops, wrong redhead!" She shook her hands around, smiling disarmingly. (A/N everyone who's played Crono Trigger should know what she meant by "that's the blonde's job"... and it wasn't REALLY the wrong redhead, just...she's trying not to destroy the game. After all, if Crono decides he doesn't want to hook up with Marle, or he decides he wants to see if he can keep himself from not doing so, poof! There goes one of the major parts of the game!!!)

Crono and his mother stared, his mother's face confused and his face disbelieving. Finally his mother said, "Who are you? Where'd you come from?"

"My name is Cat," the girl said, looking out the window again. "I came from my house, I don't know how. I was just playing a... game, then I started to shrink or something and I fell down on the floor here."

Crono scratched his arm as he thought. "Well... I guess you should leave. Where's your house?"

"Where are we?" Cat asked, even though she knew perfectly well.

"Truce Village," responded Crono's mother. (Is that right? I can't remember, and I'm just going by what I saw in a fanfic... I probably should go play the game, but I want to post this, so I'll do it later)

With a sigh, Cat wondered aloud, "How am I ever going to get home? I don't even know where home would be from here."

"Well, until you figure it out," Crono's mother declared, "you can stay with us!"

Cat blinked a few times. Staying in the same house as a very cute video game protagonist? What if she messed up the game? 'Wait a second...' she thought. 'In the tradition of all self-insert fics, you ALWAYS mess something up anyway, so why fight it? And it's not like I have anywhere else to go...' "You don't mind?" she asked aloud.

"Of course I don't!" the woman said with a smile, ignoring Crono's dismayed protests. "Crono, be quiet."

"You can't just let everyone who shows up stay here!" he practically screamed. "What if she's a thief?"

Cat narrowed her eyes in irritation. "What do you have that's worth stealing? I can't see anything, unless I want your cat food. I don't think it'd be very easy to steal the cat; it'd probably wake you all up as I tried to take it out the door.

Crono considered that for a second, and finally had to admit, however begrudgingly, that she was right. "All right! You can stay!" he grumbled sulkily.

Cat's face lit up happily and she actually hugged him, surprising the poor guy. "Yay! I can't believe this! This is soooooo awesome!" The dark haired girl danced around the room happily, making Crono's mother smile.

Crono scratched his head. He'd never had a girl he didn't know just.... HUG him like that.......

"You won't regret this!" the girl chattered. "I'll help with dishes, and laundry, and cleaning, even though I hate doing chores, it's the least I can do!"

His mother laughed. "Thank you! Well, now there's not much to do, so you can go with Crono to the fair. He's going to see his inventor friend... What was her name again, Crono?"

Crono rolled his eyes, wondering how many times she'd forget. "Lucca."

"Lucca, that's it. Anyway, you can go and see her as well. Maybe she'll have some idea of how to get you home. She's a very smart girl after all."

Crono's eyes widened. He hadn't even thought of that. Most likely, Lucca WOULD have some sort of theory about this girl's coming. He smiled at Cat, who grinned back. "All right, she can come along. She'd probably just mess something up around here."

Cat fumed. "I would not!"

Crono laughed. "You would too! You've already fallen on your backside and hit your head. Next thing we know, you'll have knocked over the fridge, you klutz!" His mother laughed quietly.

"In any case, you should go see the fair. It's not like you'd see another one in your lifetime," she told Cat. "Go on, go see it. I'll stay here, and it's not like there are many chores to do right now."

With a bright smile, Cat spun around in a circle happily. "Wai! This is so awesome!"

Crono rolled his eyes and walked over to the stairs. "Well, are we going to go or are we going to spend all day waiting for you to get dizzy and fall over?"

Cat skipped past him and rushed down the stairs. Crono shook his head as he and his mother followed. 'Where in the world did she get all that energy?' Crono wondered flippantly.

After a few seconds of studying the downstairs, Cat rushed to the door. "Let's go, Crono!" she cried, then laughed out loud. "I made a rhyme!"

Crono couldn't help but laugh. What a crazy girl. "Hey Mom, can I have my allowance first?"

"Oh, of course!" Crono's mother handed him 200 GP. "Spend it wisely," she admonished.

Crono rolled his eyes. "Of course I will, Mom." He flashed her a grin as he followed Cat out the door. "I'll see you later Mom!"

"Bye!" the woman called after them. "Have a good time!"

Crono watched Cat as she ran around in circles for a moment. "Wheeeeee!" she cried and fell back on her backside with a smile. Crono shook his head, pretending to be embarrassed to be in her company, and she grinned at him. "So, which way?" she asked.

"That way," Crono pointed. "Where all the balloons are."

"Oh yeah!" Cat remembered. Then she started walking there. "Are you sure you don't mind me hanging around you?" she asked suddenly.

Crono walked past her. "Nah, not really. I just act like I do. It's not a big deal."

Cat's eyes flashed mischievously as she walked behind him. He looked so casual and laid-back that she couldn't resist. She kicked his back foot into the back of his other foot as he started to take a step, a really effective way of tripping somebody. Just like most other people did, he fell forward, hitting the ground. When he looked up, Cat was standing in front of him, grinning evilly. She stuck her tongue out at him and said, "Nah nah, you can't catch me!" Then she dashed off towards the fair.

"You little..." Crono jumped to his feet and ran after her. She glanced at him as he slowly started to gain on her, and started to run faster. But he hadn't been training for years for nothing. He caught up to her and yanked on her ponytail.

"Itai!" she cried, hands reaching back to pry his hand off her hair. Then he kicked out with a foot, tripping her. "Hey!" she cried as she landed on her back. Crono leaned over her, grinning at her. Crono held out a hand to help her up, and Cat took it and pulled herself to her feet. "You dork..." she sulked. "It's not fair to pull a girl's hair..."

Crono grinned playfully. "You mean like this?" he asked, pulling her hair again.

"Itai! Yes!" she grabbed a lock of his hair and pulled it too. He just laughed and pulled harder. Finally Cat let go and tried to make him release her hair. "Okay okay I give! Just let go!"

Crono laughed and did as she told him to. She rubbed the back of her head and glared at him. "That's foul play," she pouted cutely.

"Who cares? You started it," Crono pointed out with a laugh.

"Well, I can beat you to the fair."

"Can you now?"

"Yes," Cat said, starting to run again. "Watch me!"

Crono decided to let her get a head start, and when she was a few yards away, he started to run as well. After about thirty seconds, he was neck and neck with her, which irritated the teenage girl, and she tried to pull ahead without success.

Soon they arrived at the fair, out of breath from laughing and running. Crono had to admit, silly as she was, this girl was a lot of fun. The last time he'd laughed that much was probably years ago.

They entered the fair and were greeted by an old man standing by the entrance. Cat suddenly remembered something, and fell back a bit. Crono looked back at her, looking mildly concerned. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, no, not really," Cat grinned nervously. She could NOT mess this part of the game up. If she did, who KNOWS what would happen? "I'm just a little tired. I'll just sit down for a minute."

"Oh. Okay," Crono replied, walking over to a bench.

'Kuso!' Cat thought angrily. 'No no no! He is supposed to just go without me! I can't mess this up!' "Go ahead and have fun," she told him. "I'll just sit here for a few minutes, then I'll come join you."

Crono asked, "Are you sure? I really don't mind waiting."

'Awww...he really IS a sweet guy... and really cute too....' Cat realized what she was thinking and slapped herself mentally. 'You idiot! He's practically taken! You saw the ending! What are you THINKING!?' Quickly she replied, "Yes, I'm positive. Just don't go see Lucca without me!" 'Mess it up or not, I'm not being left in this time when they go 400 years or whatever back in time...'

"Okay," he said, sounding a bit unsure. "I'll see you in a few minutes then..."

"Have fun!" Cat told him cheerily.

Crono flashed a smile at her as he went up the steps to another part of the fair, and Cat buried her face in her hands.

'What is wrong with me? I can't mess up THAT part of the game!'

'Why not? He isn't taken yet...' another part of her whispered.

'You shut up. I wonder if he met her yet.'

Cat stood up and walked over to the stairs that led to the other part of the fair. She peeked around a booth and saw Crono talking to Marle. 'Yes! I didn't mess it up!'

'Not yet anyway...' that irritating little voice replied.

'I thought I told you to be quiet.'

'So?'

With a sigh, Cat wondered when she's started talking to herself. Suddenly, Crono looked around and saw her standing there. With a smile, he said, "Hey Cat! Come here a second!"

Cat smiled back a bit nervously and did as he said. Crono gestured at Marle. "Cat, this is Marle. Marle, this is Cat. Cat, Marle wants to know if I could show her around since she's new around here. Is that okay with you?"

Cat thought, 'As if I have a choice...' Then she grinned and said, "Of course it's okay. If she doesn't know where everything is, it'd be rude to just tell her to go figure it out."

Marle jumped happily. "Thank you so much!"

Crono said, "No problem."

Turning her head, Cat asked, "What all is there to do?" Having played Chrono Trigger so much, of course she knew, but she couldn't exactly tell them. It was odd having to play dumb.

After a moments thought, Crono answered, "We can fight the battle robot, watch the races, go to the Tent of Horrors, or other random games which aren't much of a challenge."

"How much does the Tent cost?"

"Oh, we have to earn some silver points first." Crono thought for a second. "You can pretty much get silver points from any of the games."

Marle said, "Okay, Crono, since you seem to be the only one of us that knows this place fairly well, why don't you pick something?"

Crono thought for a moment, then asked, "Can you two fight?"

Marle nodded, but Cat looked a bit sheepish. "I can't really fight with a weapon.... I never learned how. I can fight with a stick... if I had one right now... I was actually kinda hoping you'd teach me how to use a sword..." As she talked, her voice became steadily quieter until you could barely hear her.

Crono smiled at her kindly. "Don't worry about it. I'll teach you. It's not a problem. But you do need a sword."

For a moment, Cat thought about where she could get a sword. Then she remembered about Melchior. "There's a guy down there," she told them, pointing, "He has some swords and stuff for sale. Can we go look?"

"Sure," Crono said. "You'll have to pay me back if I get you something though..."

Cat grinned at him, and answered, "Okay."

With that, they walked off to find Melchior.

Chi: Well, was it too bad? I hope you didn't mind that it was so long. I got a complaint that it was too short, so.... I was supposed to stop this chappie after Crono and Cat left his house but... *shrugs* it got away with me. Anyways, I'm fairly satisfied with it. I have to go start the game again to get all the little details. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you! "Itai" means "ouch" as you might've guessed. It's Japanese. I'm sorry that I stick that in a lot, it just comes out naturally. And Cat says it all the time when we chat so... And "Nande kuso?" means "what the hell?" She says that a lot too. Those are the only ones I think I stuck in there...but they're there because she says them.

Cat: I got to mess with Crono! ^_^

Chi: *sigh* that you did... heeheehee....

Cat: *glare* what are you planning...?

Chi: ^_^ Sore wa himitsu desu!

Cat: *sigh*


	3. Swords, Fighting, and Creepy Things

Chi: Hi! I know, I know, it's been forever and a day. I'm sorry. But hey, I kinda got busy with school, and then with family business... soooo... But I'm back now, and hopefully I'll be able to update on a more regular basis. At least once a month, hopefully. I'm trying to replay the game as I write this, and trying my hardest to stay as close to the story as I can, but as the story progresses, Cat will end up changing more and more about the storyline, just by being there. The curse of insert fics ^_^; but I'm actually gonna do it on purpose. Don't worry, I won't do anything too huge, like kill someone I don't like, or anything like that. Buuuut... you will notice some weird little bits. I mean, come on. They really do have to sleep and stuff. So there.

Cat: ...

Chi: What??

Cat: ...Nothing really, but I'm just wondering when you're gonna get on with it. I bet they are too.

Chi: Oh yeah... ^^;; So on we go!

After going down some steps, they saw a small booth with an odd looking man in it. Well, it wasn't as much a booth as an enclosure with some weapons on a blanket. But it would suffice.

Crono pointed at him, catching Cat's attention. "Is that the guy you were talking about?"

"Yep! Sure is!" Cat skipped over to him and grinned pleasantly. "Hi there! You sell weapons, right?" She was afraid she was at the wrong booth; after all, there was no telling how different than the game this might really be.

"I do," the weird looking man replied. "Would you like to buy?"

"Yes," Crono said, walking next to Cat and studying the swords. Then he pointed at one that looked quite well made. "How much is that?"

The shopkeeper glanced at it. "Oh, that would be my Lode Sword. Four thousand gold."

"Yikes, that's a lot." Crono blanched, then indicated a different one, which had about three identical copies near it. "How about those?"

"Three hundred fifty gold."

Crono thought about that, and Cat leaned forward, looking fascinated. "Is that the iron one? Wow..."

Both Crono and the merchant looked at her, obviously surprised. "You've a good eye, lass," the merchant complimented her. "That is indeed iron. I call it the Iron Blade."

"How'd you know that?" Crono wanted to know. He wasn't sure what to expect from her; first she seemed totally incompetent, then she surprised him.

"Oh, uh..." Cat's brain flailed for an excuse. "...Lucky guess..." she offered finally, for lack of a better explanation. "I've studied weapons a bit, and I'm really interested in swords, and I just kinda guessed..."

"I see." The merchant studied her a moment more, then apparently lost interest for the time being when Crono cleared his throat to get his attention.

"I would like two of the Iron Blades," Crono told the merchant, pulling out seven hundred gold. 

The merchant took it and said, "I live on the continent east of here. Come visit me sometime. My name is Melchior." He looked past them at Marle and added, "By the way... do you think you could convince that young lady back there to sell me her pendant?"

Cat sucked in her breath. She knew that the better choice was to say no, but without a player to direct him, who knew what Crono's personality would urge him to say? Luckily, he shook his head and explained, "No, sorry. She seems quite attached to it, so I don't think so."

"...I see." Melchior lost interest in her and glanced at Cat again. Cat squirmed under his gaze while he handed both swords to Crono without taking his eyes off her.

Crono accepted them and gave one to Cat. She forced herself to tear her eyes away from Melchior and thank him, despite the fact that the merchant was still staring at her. "Thanks a lot, Crono!"

"You're expensive," he complained, but the grin on his face told Cat that he didn't mind too much. The odd expression on her face worried him more. "You alright?"

"Mm-hmm..." Cat could still feel Melchior's eyes on her. "Let's go do something, I'm getting bored!"

Crono and Marle, who had come up and joined them, both laughed. "Okay, then," Crono said after he'd calmed down a bit. "Let's go and fight the battle robot! He should be somewhere up there," he added, pointed up towards Leene's Bell.

"Great! Let's go!" Cat dashed away from Melchior, in a hurry to get away from his gaze. She already knew that he was more than he seemed, and it worried her. The longer she stood there, the harder it was to act natural, and the less natural she seemed, the more obvious her oddness was. Once she'd passed a kid sitting on a bench and climbed the stairs, Cat slowed down and waited for Crono and Marle to catch up. In response to their odd looks, she made up an excuse. "I just realized I don't know which way to go," she said, looking sheepish. It was an expression she'd learned early on, from pretending to be stupider than she was.

Laughing, Crono pointed to the left, and the three went that way. They passed an old man who was getting ready to eat lunch, and a cat who was sitting behind some booths. Then they went by a young man who was saying, "Try your strength against Lucca's battle robot!"

Then they were in a small enclosure, with a large, roundish robot. It had two points on his head that looked almost like ears. It shifted its substantial weight from one oval shaped foot to the other as it watched them approach it. When they got close, it yanked out a microphone and started singing, much to their surprise.

"They call me Gato; I have metal joints. Beat me up, and earn fifteen silver points!" it sang out, just slightly out of tune. Cat giggled hysterically.

"Spread out and surround it," Crono told them, unsheathing his sword and facing Gato from the front. Marle moved around to the right, and Cat went to the left. Marle pulled a crossbow from her back, and Cat followed suit, yanking her sword from its sheath awkwardly.

Just then Cat noticed the robot step towards Crono, and the circular covering on its stomach swung forward. "Look out!" she cried without thinking, and rushed forward, sword in front of her. As Crono froze in shock, Gato extended what seemed to be a boxing glove out of the opening on its stomach quickly, hitting Crono several times in his own stomach. Cat jumped forward, swinging her sword over her head and down onto Gato's shoulder. It turned its attention to her, ramming her with its glove multiple times and making her stagger backwards. Marle shot Gato in the back and set another bolt on her crossbow. The robot froze for a moment, then hit Cat again. Since she wasn't ready for it this time, the wind was knocked out of her and she fell on her backside. Crono ran at it, his sword ready, and slashed it twice. Then he rushed over to Cat and stood in front of her to try to stop her from being hit again before she regained her breath.

Gato seemed to have had enough though; it stopped moving for a moment, then went back to the center of the enclosure again and pulled out its microphone again. "I lost, you won. Here's fifteen points! Now wasn't that fun!?"

It extended its glove again, this time much slower, and with fifteen silver tokens in it. Crono took the tokens and held out a hand for Cat. Cat took it and hoisted herself to her feet. "Not bad for your first time, Cat," Crono told her as they all put away their weapons. "But I think you need to work on how you unsheathe it."

"Well, sorry!" Cat protested. "It's the first time I've ever even held a sword!"

"It's alright!" Crono told her. "Just try to pull it out straight, like this." He demonstrated. "That way, it comes out easier."

Cat tried it, pulling her sword out slowly. "That's it," Crono assured her. "Just a little faster when we're actually in front of a monster, okay?" Cat made a face at him and he laughed. "So, what're we going to do with these silver points?"

"I dunno," Marle answered thoughtfully. "What else is there to do?"

Cat gasped, making the other two look at her funny. She didn't seem to notice though, and she proceeded to jump up and down excitedly. "I wanna go to the tent of horrors!" Cat squealed, and Crono raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why?"

Cat stopped bouncing around. "Just... because..." After a moment's thought, she added, "I dunno. It just struck me as something fun to do."

Marle giggled. "Well, it does sound fun. Let's do it!"

Crono sighed at the two of them and agreed, although a bit put out. "Okay, fine." He led the way back south towards the entrance and made a left turn towards a large, colorful tent. The three teens passed an old lady who stood in front of the tent calling, "This is the Norstein Bekkler's Tent of Horrors! Spend your fifteen silver points here! Parental discretion recommended."

"How did she know how many silver points we have?" Cat whispered to Marle behind Crono, who led the way into the tent.

"I dunno, maybe she's psychic," Marle giggled, following Crono. 

They entered the tent, which was bigger inside than it first appeared. There was a grate in the back of the room, straight ahead, which Cat swore she could see red eyes peeking through. Then they saw what appeared to be a floating face and two hands. The face had a big nose, almost like a clown's nose. Crono approached him, and then the face started laughing hysterically. Marle jumped and hid behind Crono, while Cat just raised an eyebrow at the odd laughter.

'It sounds almost just like the laugh on the game, except more annoying since it's in real life...'

"Welcome to Norstein Bekkler's Lab!" the face bellowed, waving its hands around flamboyantly. "The spine tingling show is about to start!" Not seeming to notice how freaked out Marle was, it moved over to the side and asked, "How many silver points would you like to spend?"

"Ten, please," Crono told it. The grate ahead of them opened, making Marle jump, and three men dressed as soldiers came out and stood in a line parallel to the three teenagers.

The first one stepped forward and announced, "I'm Vicks."

After Vicks had stepped back, the one on the right presented himself and said, "I'm Wedge."

When Wedge had gone back to his place, the middle one came forth and stated, "I'm Piette."

Next, as Cat knew they would, the three soldiers started going around the line, mixing themselves up thoroughly. Cat paid close attention, ignoring the fact that Crono and Marle both seemed to be shocked by the three men's behavior. When Vicks, Wedge, and Piette all found new places on the line, the face called out, "Find Wedge."

Crono and Marle both looked at each other in confusion before turning to Cat. Cat studied the three men carefully. As far as anyone could tell, all three were identical. Luckily for her, she already knew what was going on, and she had watched as carefully as she could. Almost certain of herself, she pointed at the one on the left and announced, "That one is Wedge."

The other two were shocked when the face cried, "Is it THAT obvious?"

"Way to go, Cat!" Marle squealed happily as the face held up a furry, adorable doll.

"It's a Poyozo doll. It'll spruce up your room." Then the doll disappeared, and the face said, "It's in your room now. Thank you, and come again."

 Cat grinned triumphantly as they exited the tent. Marle was chattering happily. "I can't believe you did that so easily! I was totally confused when they came out! I had no idea they'd do something like that!"

"Neither did I..." Crono commented, sounding a bit suspicious.

Cat's grin faltered slightly, then she brightened up again and said, "I've done that before. It's a... game that I played with my friends all the time. Except we couldn't do it with people, so we did it with cups. It was hard, but after a while, you've learned to start paying attention the moment they start to move. We'd put small objects under the cups, and then we'd tell them which was where and cover them, and move them around, then we'd have them guess which was a certain object." Cat cursed in her head. Why did she have to make her lie so elaborate? Once she'd started talking, she didn't seem to be able to stop!

Crono smiled at her, all suspicions gone. "Oh, okay."

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Marle giggled.

As they went up the steps, Crono groaned. "Looks like Lucca's not done setting up," he said, pointing at two blonde guys who were blocking the way to the northernmost part of the fair. "So, what can we do now?"

Cat looked to her right. "What's over there? We haven't been over there yet." Without answering, Crono started walking that way with Cat and Marle in tow. There they saw some colorful booths full of fruits, a little girl who looked quite distraught, and a table with cans of soda on it. Cat rushed over to the girl quickly and asked, "Are you okay?! What's wrong?"

"Help me find my cat!" she wailed, looking horrified. "She's missing!"

Cat hugged the girl, trying to make her feel better, and looked over the girl's head at Crono. "Can you two try to find the cat while I try to make her stop crying?"

Without waiting for Crono's response, Marle nodded and dragged him away by his arm. Cat hugged the little girl, saying, "There, there, my friends are going to go find your kitty. Don't cry, they'll find her."

A few minutes later, Crono stomped back. Cat looked up at him and started laughing hysterically. He had scratches on his arms and one on his cheek. Crono didn't seem to think it as funny though, although Marle behind him obviously did. "We found the cat," he announced, "but it didn't seem keen on coming with us."

The girl heard this and burst into tears again. Cat sighed. "Marle, keep an eye on her. Crono, show me where the cat is."

Marle took over soothing the hysterical child while Crono led Cat over to where the kitten was hiding in some bushes. Cat crouched down, making herself very visible to the kitten and cooed, "Hello there. I'm Cat! What's your name, sweetie?"

Groaning, Crono grumbled, "Cat, come on now, do you really think it can understand you?!"

"It can," she insisted gently, so as not to scare the kitten. "Come on, your friend is very worried about you now. She's crying a lot, because she thinks you're lost. And she doesn't think you're going to come back. But you will now, won't you? Please? She's quite upset about losing you, and she wants you to be near her."

"Cat..." Crono's voice trailed off as he heard a soft mew and saw the kitten's head poke out of the bushes. Cat continued to coax her out until she could pick her up and cradle her in her arms.

"That's a good little girl... She'll be happy to see you again..." Looking at Crono meaningfully, Cat led the way back to the distressed child, with the kitten in her arms. Crono looked down at his scratched up forearms, sighed, and followed.

The girl looked up sharply when she heard Cat's footsteps, and squealed in delight when she saw her kitten. "You brought back my cat! Thank you!"

Marle started giggling happily. "It was sweet of you to try, Crono," she assured him, using a quick healing spell on him to heal the scratches.

Cat grinned. "Yeah, it was. Thanks. You did find the kitty, after all." Then she noticed the drinking contest nearby and squealed happily. "Hey! You wanna try that?"

Crono looked over at it and grinned. "Why not? I'm usually pretty good at these."

The guy doing the contest heard them and called, "It's a soda guzzling contest! Drink as quickly as you can for thirty seconds!" Crono strutted over and grabbed the first can. "Ready...go!"

Chi: It's 4 in the morning, so I thought that'd be a good time to end it...

Cat: 4:03...

Chi: Whatever! Oh, in case anyone was wondering, these A/Ns are always stuff me and Cat talk about when I finish or start chapters. If I need help with an A/N, I just tell her what I'm saying and she says something smart aleck -_-"

Cat: ^_^V

Chi: Anyway, those of you who got an email about this, sorry if you didn't want it. I try to make people happy. And I thought maybe you'd want to know that I finally updated.

Cat: 4:05...

Chi: Aww, shut up! *hits Cat with frying pan*

Cat: @_@ lookit the purdy birdies.... *falls over*

Chi: ^_^V Please review and tell me what you thought!


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